Newsletter May
12 May 2023
Hello everyone!
Whoot whoot! Second newsletter in your mailbox! This week in the studio we are busy with testing 3d printed haberdashery, finishing a stunning blue tailor-made sports bag and wet molding big pockets for a bag.
While Gabriel is working on his Research and Design report, I am creating this piece of writing. You can expect insights from testing alternative materials. Information about our research towards a compostable bag and some inspiration since sharing is caring!
Hope you like it!
Insights – mango, pine, apple and rubber
In recent years, there has been a growing awareness of the negative impact that plastics have on the environment and how they pollute the landfills. So do the haberdashery and textiles of bags that end up in the landfill. And that whilst bags are such a personal belonging to people. A bag can really define a person. In an ideal world you should be able to bury the bag in your back garden so you can take your goodbyes properly.
In search of materials that can support this mission we do a lot of experiments. The last few weeks we got the chance to try out 4 different materials; mango, pine, apple and rubber based. Let me share some insights with you!
Mango – Fruitleather
This Rotterdam based company was one of the first to take fruit waste and turn it into new material. Mangos that have gone bad during transport are smashed into a puree. Fibers are extracted and formed into a sheet. After drying a layer of finish is added and the sheets are sold to designers and companies all over the world.
What I like most about the material is that you can see what it is made of. It does not only try to look like leather. It has a look of its own, with playful tiny dots of the mango seed. Tricky is the scent of the material, but it wears off over time and the product is still in development. I can be vulnerable when folded, but I was able tomake a Weave fanny pack out of it!
Will it compost? Unfortunately due to a small percentage of plastic in the coating the material is not compostable but it is biodegradable. This means that when the material is buried into the ground the material will break down by the microorganisms but it will leave toxins into the ground. The company is still aiming to make a fully natural, vegan alternative so it's very promising for the future.
Pine- PinkeSkin
We met Sarmite Polakova at theMaterial District. She believes that the term “waste” should be seen as a surplus rather than something negative and thus can be turned into a resource for creating something new. From the wood industry in Latvia her team uses the bark of pine trees to create PineSkin. It smells like you are in the woods and no sheet is the same since it uses the natural textures of the bark. When working with it you have to be sure to use the right direction for bending, to help it bend. Very valuable, but an adventure to design for and work with.
Will it compost? Yes, the PineSkin is compostable.
Apple – Leap
Another more recent example of reducing food waste is Leap. They use apple waste of the Danish juice and cider industry to create a leather alternative. The material has a nice and flexible fortitude. The material behaves a lot like leather so unlike a pineskin or fruitleather which can be brittle in some areas, this leather alternative allows you to not have to adjust your designs to fit the material.
Will it compost? Unfortunately due to a small percentage of fossil fuel-derived materiali in the coating the material is not compostable but it is biodegradable. This means that when the material is buried into the ground the material will break down by the microorganisms but it will leave toxins into the ground.
Rubber – Mirum
The scientific founder of Mirum had a goal, to create a leather alternative that wasn’t petroleum based. It became the plant based, plastic free Mirum. Made from natural rubber, plant oils, waxes and extracts, minerals, natural colors, and pigments this material looks and feels very leatherlike. Very flexible and easy to work with. The material is produced in the States and has to be shipped all the way from there though.
Will it compost? Mirum is biodegradable! Not sure if it feeds the ground, if it is compostable.
Times are changing, so there are so many alternatives in the market now. It is hard to figure out all the ins and outs, pro's and con's, about them. The Plant- or fruit based alternatives seem to pop up more and more, still improving their recipes to reduce the use of plastics.
I am still looking for a fully compostable option, but sometimes the answer is closer than you think, as I will describe below!
Information – Leather Tanning and Industry Challenges
Gabriel pointed me to a very interesting podcast from Leathertainment Studio Podcast interviewing Dr. Kerry Senior. He is director of Leather UK and has a background in environmental science.
In the podcast they are critical about looking for alternatives for leather that are better for the environment. Their logic is, when you create something new that might be better, but let waste material (hides as a byproduct from the meat and dairy industry) go to waste, isn’t it better to use that waste instead of creating more and new materials that might have their impact because a lot of these alternatives use plastics?
There is also a lot of discussion about the biodegradability and composability of leather. Different resources tell different things, and the use of definitions is not clear in all of them.
In this podcast Kerry Senior is very explicit that there is a lot of misunderstanding about this topic.
He shares his knowledge and starts with the base; Rawhide will rot away and return to nature, it is organic material. The broad answer is that leather is biodegradable. Vegetable tanned leather is more resistant to biodegrading than chrome tanned, but when it degrades it feeds the soil, studies prove an increase of 20% in plant growth when the soil is fed with vegetable tanned leather. The way of composting (in a home of industrial setup) has an effect on the degradation process. Patent leather (leather with a substantial finishing layer) will interfere with the biodegrading process and the layer of PU (plastic) will be left when the leather is gone. While vegetable tanned leather (naked, porous leather) will degrade quicker, since you have no synthetic interferences and residue.
The more natural the leather, the quicker it goes. There are some new tanning techniques emerging, like a tanning agent based on non-food sugar (waste from the industry) or zeolite, that will make leather biodegradewithin a matter of days.
So far, according to this podcast (different sources contradict this) vegetable tanned leather seems the best option in my mission. It lasts long when made into a bag and it feeds the soil when it degrades, however biodegrading also takes a long time.
Inspiration To watch
Two tips this time! Both start in the 80’s, with very different perspectives.
I am currently watching “Fight the Power, How Hip Hop Changed The World”. An important history lesson with an amazing soundtrack. For the dutchies, you can find it on Uitzending Gemist/ NPO Start.
I saw "White Noise" a little while ago. An absurd comedy-drama based on a book by Don DeLillo. The main characters talk in philosophical sentences, which nearly all of them are very quotable, like: “Murrey says we are fragile creatures surrounded by hostile facts”...grim but beautiful and relatable.
Festival coming up!
The creative process is central during this years midsummer festival. As a visitor, you often only experience the end product of a film, show or exhibition. While the process behind the end result is often just as entertaining and interesting!
You will discover your creative side at four locations during the festival. Participate in a real making workshop at @decreateurdotcom, enjoy theater and film performances at @vechtclub.utrecht , immerse yourself in a playground for the senses at @kanaal30 or follow a rollerskating workshop at @karmakebab
So experience and participate! Welcome!
Sunday 4th of June @kanaal30
Kanaalweg 30, Utrecht